Welcome to our class blog!

The purpose of this blog is to teach others about social psychology by writing about topics that are personally relevant and interesting.

Each post will explore a social psychology principle and connect it to an analysis of a film or book, a first-hand account of a social experiment, or the discussion of something from popular culture, a current or historical event, etc.

Blog posts will be released approximately weekly, by topic:

13-Feb: Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination
27-Feb: Attitudes
06-Mar: Conformity
20-Mar: Group Processes
27-Mar: Attraction and Close Relationships
05-Apr: Helping Others
12-Apr: Aggression

Bloggers - Full instructions are available on our Canvas page.

Readers - Please comment on the posts and respond to the bloggers' questions and prompts.

Bloggers will be following comments and responding for a week after the posting date.

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A Population's Perspective - How Locals View and Experience Relationships

Relationships and attraction are two pretty complex topics. In trying to think of ways to explore these areas a little further, I decided to conduct a little social psychology research and get some information from a local population to answer two main questions: how do people in our local environment view relationships, and what makes them view them the way that they do? I was curious about whether our local environment here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, specifically Houghton, even more specifically the MTU community, is unique in how relationships are viewed and experienced, or if we fit the mold discussed in our textbook and other literature. To get my answers, I created a simple 14-question survey and sent it out to a variety of family, friends, coworkers, and classmates, all in the local area. I received a total of 23 responses, none of which are in our social psychology class. After looking at the data I collected, I was able to make some links and connections to possible r

The Gender Gap in Bullying

We all have experienced the effects of bullying in our lives one way or another, whether or not they happened to us directly or we heard the horror stories from friends and family. You could even have just experienced it in the media where, in any fictional depiction of school one of the most prominent aspects is the bully. Bullying is a consistent aspect of school for children of all generations, just as consistent are the stark differences between the ways boys and girls bully one another. The differences are so clear in fact, that they easily fall into and make great examples of different types of aggression. It would make sense to start with the ways boys harass one another as studies suggest that they experience more frequently than the opposite gender. Boys tend to be the victims of physical violence far more often than girls and the actions don’t tend to be premeditated in any way. They are fueled by emotional turmoil and things such as establishing d

Helping Those In Need

The American social psychologist C. Daniel. Batson, believes that we help each other out of genuine concern for ones well-being. according to his 'empathy-altruism hypothesis' if someone feels empathy towards another person, they will help them, regardless of what they can gain from it (1991). The number one free fundraising cite out there today is GoFundMe. The simple process of starting up a fundraiser and getting it out there across multiple social platforms is almost effortless. I used GoFundMe while in high school to help fund travel expenses for a national competition. The support I received was more than I had expected and looking back on this experience now, I was curious as to why people would support a fundraiser that they would not personally gain from (physical reward). Link to old GoFundMe As we talked about helping others in chapter 10 I came across an article online called In Helping Other, You Help Yourself by Dr. Marianna Pogosyan

Social Psychology 2019

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